Strange coincidence

Wijitha Nakkawita and Jayampathy Jayasinghe

The attack on the MTV/MBC TV/Radio station reported in the small hours of yesterday seemed to be coincidental since on January 6, 2002 also a major fire was reported around 1.30 p.m. by the management of TV/Radio station and the fire brigade had come and doused the Fire.

On that occasion the management said the damage caused was in the region of Rs. 200 million but ruled out sabotage.

They said it was an accident when some wires were being welded by workmen inside the premises.

In the present case the damage had not been assessed but the police had asked the management for the tapes of their Closed Circuit TV for further investigations but up to the time this edition went to press the CCTV tapes had not been received by the Maharagama Police.

Police investigating the alleged attack on the MTV /MBC studio complex at Depanama Pannipitiya by an unidentified armed gang yesterday morning say that they are awaiting the reports of the Government Analyst and the finger-prints experts to conduct further investigations.

Police Media Spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunesekera said the attack on the studio complex was carried around 1.45 am by some persons who had arrived in a white van. As the persons involved in the attack have not been identified the police request MTV authorities to hand over a copy of the Closed Circuit Security TV footage if available to the police to facilitate investigation.

SSP Gunesekera said two days prior to the incident some persons were reported to have hurled three bottles filled with petrol stuffed with lit pieces of cloth, molotov cocktails. No one involved in the incident have been identified, he said.